A $345,164 grant from the state of Texas will help Paris Junior College launch a new dedicated 3D printing program, a first for a two year school in Texas. Using 3D printing in education continues to become widely adopted at four year schools, is this a sign that the trend is spreading to the community college level?
Jobs and Education for Texans
, or JET, is a state grant program that helps smaller schools invest in new technologies to help train Texas students for careers in cutting edge and high demand occupations. As 3D printing becomes more widely understood by the general public and integrated into the manufacturing and design industries it has been working its way into more and more college programs. It still remains a rarity among two year colleges, however Texas often dictates the direction of most educational curriculums in the United States, so this is a good sign that it will become more common.
Currently, the drafting program at PJC is set to integrate 3D printing into their curriculum, and PJC will also be creating a standalone 3D printing certification program. The grant will provide the school with twenty 3D printers, forty work stations and all of the licenses and support materials needed.
There is no mention of the types of 3D printers that the school will be purchasing or the types of materials they will be investing in unfortunately. However as large a sum of money as $350,000 seems it probably isn’t going to buy a lot of industrial 3D printers once you factor in materials for a full semester and forty work stations. To me that suggests that the curriculum will focus on mid-level and desktop 3d printers. I would hope that whoever is in charge of purchasing the 3D printers looks beyond the standard plug and print desktop 3D printers and looks into some RepRap machines first. Learning how and why to 3D print is probably going to be easier if you build your own machine.
I would also argue that the value of teaching open source technology to students is just as important as, if not more so, than instruction in how to use an actual 3D printer. Understanding why open sourced technology is important to innovation and technological advancement is a lesson more valuable to the next generation of engineers and tech workers than learning how to press a start button and unclog an extruder.
Of course we don’t have any information of what the new class will involve and what type of curriculum it will be using. The 3D printing classes are currently slated to start in the next fall semester, so If you’re a Texan, or want to learn more about what other classes are available to you at Paris Junior College, head on over to their website and register.
Source: KXII
